Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood gathers nearly forty essays by writers grappling with the new and compelling ideas that motherhood has dangled before them. The book — sized to fit conveniently into a diaper bag — grew out of Salon.com’s popular daily site Mothers Who Think, edited by Camille Peri and Kate Moses and critically applauded for elevating the discussion of motherhood above the level of tantrum control and potty training. The intelligent, candid essays in Mothers Who Think are a testament to the notion that motherhood gives women more to think about, not less: from the impossibility of loving your children equally to raising a son without a father, from worrying that your privileged black child is becoming too “white” to the free-floating anger most mothers feel but wouldn’t dare admit — except to other mothers. Peri and Moses have assembled the best writing from the website’s first two years, including works by Anne Lamott, Chitra Divakaruni, Susie Bright and Stephanie Coontz, and added eloquent new essays by Jayne Anne Phillips, Sallie Tisdale, Susan Straight, Jane Lazarre, Nora Okja Keller, Beth Kephart, Ariel Gore, Alex Witchel and more than a dozen unforgettable new voices. Irreverent, wistful, hilarious, fierce, tender, these essays offer an unsparing look at the myths and realities, serious and silly sides, and thankless and supremely satisfying aspects of being a mother.